A collection of data includes a plurality of records having values assigned to different fields, each field corresponding to an attribute of the data. The data is manipulated by importing the data into an application that displays the data and generating a first table via the application, the first table including content which summarizes at least a portion of the data based on one or more of the fields. A second table is generated from the first table, and content of the second table is modified independent of the first table. The data imported into the application is automatically revised based on the modifications made to the content of the second table so that the data imported into the application incorporates the modifications.